Monday, April 4, 2011

Burgess Shale

Burgess Shale is home to one of the greatest fossil fields man has ever known. It is located in the Canadian Rockies in British Colombia. It was discovered in 1909 by Charles Walcott. It is the greatest record we have of Cambrian animal fossils. It is believed that these animals thrived after the Cambrian explosion over 500 million years ago. Since it's discovery over 60,000 fossils of both hard and soft bodied animals have been found here. Here are some of those odd animals:

Anomalocaris:

Wiwaxia:

Hallucigenia:

Opabinia:

Waptia:

Marella:

Also, check out this sweet vid of all the animals!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1DPzY6o6hQ&feature=related